5 times Natasha was there for them, and 1 time they were there for her
by Cloudy225
Summary: "There was nothing you could have done. You're a damned good person, Steve" This story will revolve around 5 times Natasha was there for the team and 1 time they were there for her. Trigger warnings are in place for mentions of torture.
1. Steve

**I do not own the Avengers or anything in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.**

**This series will revolve around Natasha helping each member of the team in their times of need, and finally them helping Natasha through her time of need.****I will be doing one Avenger per chapter, so if you want to remain in the loop for when the next chapter is uploaded please select to follow the story.****Enjoy!**

Steve

The blonde man sank to the chair, his head in his hands. They had just arrived at Sam's for the night and he couldn't stop thinking of his childhood friend. Of Bucky.

"Are you alright?" Natasha asked her captain quietly as she sat next to him, willing for him to speak and not to shut her out. She didn't know much of the situation, but from what she did understand she certainly didn't envy his position in the slightest.

"Fine," He muttered tersley, his voice betraying the pain he was feeling.

"Steve, I know when you're lying to me," She told him calmly. However, he wasn't having any of it.

"I said I'm fine, Nat," He spoke abruptly before retiring to the guest twin room.

"He's not okay, is he?" Natasha whirled around to see Sam leaning against the door frame, his arms crossed against his chest.

"No,"

"What's wrong anyway?"He spoke curiously, not having been filled in on what had just taken place.

"You lost your friend, didn't you?" She went by what Steve had told her. A brief nod confirmed her knowledge.

"Imagine he was actually alive and had been all these years but he was on the wrong side. He then proceeds to kill your boss and tries to kill you. That's what he's feeling right now,"

"Wow," Sam murmured, not shocked he wasn't speaking to anyone.

Later that night, Natasha was roused from her sleep to the sound of violent tossing and turning. She blinked awake, glancing at the clock as she did so, 3:45.

She turned over to see Steve letting out pained noises, closely resembling a dying animal.

"No! Bucky! No!" He suddenly began to shout in his sleep. The red haired assassin instantly jumped out of bed and went to wake Steve from the nightmare he was trapped in.

"Steve? Steve wake up," She muttered as she pushed and shook the super soldier. After a few more seconds, his eyes flickered open as he began to breathe heavily at the trauma he had experienced in his own mind.

"It's okay. I'm here, Steve," She told him gently, sitting at the end of his bed.

"Natasha? I'm sorry for waking you,"

"There's nothing to be sorry for, Rodgers. We all have nightmares now and again, ours are just a little more real and we do need support, Steve. Do you want to talk about it?"

"We were on the train. It was meant to be a routine operation, but it went wrong,"

"What happened?"

"He fell out, Bucky did. I could have saved him. If only I'd tried a bit harder I could have got him back home. Then this whole mess wouldn't have happened, hell you wouldn't even have that scar on your stomach,"

"There's nothing you could have done. You're a damned good person, Steve. I know if there was even a chance of him not falling, he would be here with us," Natasha told him, "You need to stop believing you could have done more. Trust me it will eat you up inside until there's nothing left but self doubt and self loathing. You weren't the reason this happened. If it hadn't been Bucky, it would still have been someone else,"

"I suppose so, but he's still gone. He's on HYDRA,"

"Focus on the positives, Steve. He's not dead! We can undo the brainwashing, it'll just take time,"

"How do we know that, though? What if we can't bring him back?"

"Because Clint brought me back, and I was never the kind of good person Bucky was. If I could be saved after being in the KGB since a young child, I'm sure as hell we'll get Bucky back,"

"Thanks, Nat," Steve spoke, feeling a lot better.

"Don't mention it, Rodgers. Now get some sleep. You'll need it if we're gonna bring Bucky back home,"

**So I hope you enjoyed the first chapter. If you did, please review as it really does help me continue the story, and it allows me to receive what you want to see, and maybe I'll include it.**


	2. Tony

**Thank you to everyone who has reviewed, followed and favorited this story!**

**This chapter will contain mentions of torture.**

Tony

The sound of gunfire ricocheting of the sandy roads followed close behind them as the hot weather burned them over their uniforms. Stark's flight receptors had long since been damaged, resorting him to a sprint alongside the world class killer.

"Get back here!" Someone shouted from behind them.

"Go that way! Cut them off at the top!" Someone else, a leader, Natasha assumed, called out.

"JARVIS, scan for any potential hiding spots,"

"Of course, boss,"

Natasha and Tiny began to pant over the unrelenting rays of the hot sun as they opted for the desert route instead as it offered less constrictment as to where they could move.

"There's a cave four hundred yards in front of you, boss. Thermal scans reveal no one to be there,"

"I've got a grenade. As soon as I throw it we sprint like our lives depend on it,"

"In all fairness, they do," Tony dryly responded.

The grenade landed in the middle of the group, the explosion providing sufficient ammunition for them to hurry up the sand dunes, taking advantage of the momentary confusion of the terrorists after them.

They quickly reached the cave, and clamoured inside. They collapsed against the walls of the cave gasping slightly for breath. Natasha pulled a water bottle from her backpack and took gulps of it to placate the thirst the heat had given her. She handed the bottle to Tony afterwards, as he had no baggage space from his iron man suit.

However, their brief relaxation was short lived as they heard shouts coming from outside the entrance.

"They know we're in here," Tony muttered to Natasha, dropping the bottle onto the cracked ground. The redhead pulled her glock out of her hip holster, ready for the inevitable fire fight.

"What are they doing," The Black Widow asked in curiosity as to why they weren't entering the cave.

"We'll just have to go to them," Tony spoke confidently, taking steps forward.

However, he was halted in his tracks as a loud explosion began to ring in their ears. No warning was given before a huge rock tumbled in front of the one and only entrance to the cave.

"Shit!" Natasha swore, the sound echoing around the dusty cave they now found themselves encased in, "You can get us out right?" She asked, turning towards the other person on the mission: Tony Stark.

However, when she turned to face him she was slightly concerned to see him breathing slightly heavier than usual as he leant on the wall for support.

"Tony? Are you okay?" She was met with no response, except for more of the laboured, tortured sounding of his breathing.

She knew about his past, of course she did. She should have known better, she thought to herself, than to seek shelter in the caves with Stark's history.

"Tony?" She attempted again to get through to him, leaning on the wall next to him, more and more worry becoming predominant on her dusty face as she noticed the far off look in his eyes. That was never good.

"I'll do whatever you want, okay," He spoke quietly, much like prey addressing it's predator, "I'll build your goddamn weapon,"

"Tony, look at me,"

"Okay, just don't hurt me, please," He groaned out, sounding as if he'd been tortured for months.

"I won't, I promise. Just look at me," Stark's armour covered head raised to match the level of her own. From the outside, the Black Widow could hear JARVIS reasoning with Tony to try and lead him out of his flashback.

"It's Natasha. Okay? I'm not the ten rings," She spoke softly and calmly, not wanting to alert the Iron Man whilst he felt threatened and was wearing his suit.

The sound of a machine gun from the outside appeared to snap Tony out of his flashback.

"Nat? What's going on?" He inquired, dazed.

"You had a flashback to the ten rings. We're stuck in this cave," She summarised the events.

"I'll blast this open then," Tony spoke, the seasoned spy able to pick up on the traces of embarrassment and shame in his voice.

"There's nothing to be ashamed of, Tony. I don't know a single person who's spent a considerable time in the field that hasn't had at least one flash back. Hell, I know I get them, especially in Russia," She confided with him, "So it's understandable why your have one in the circumstances. Don't be embarrassed of it," She confided in him.

"Thanks, Nat," He smiled slightly up at her from behind his mask before blasting the cave open. He was ready to give the people on the outside of the cave hell.

**Again, if you like it or want to see something in the later chapters please review!**


	3. Clint

**I'm so sorry for the long wait!! I've just been so focused on other stuff lately. Okay so I just saw Endgame and if you haven't seen it yet, you need to watch it!**

**Okay without further ado, here's the next chapter. If you enjoy please review!**

**Chapter Three) Clint**

The sound of struggling and heavy panting rapidly echoed throughout the room, jolting the red haired assassin out of her light slumber. She quickly jumped up from the hard steel chair she had planted herself on, quickly scanning the situation. Clint had just awoken from his unconscious state.

"Barton?" She checked wearily, sporting the bruises he had given her mere hours before. That was all the proof she needed to not trust him completely at the time.

"Nat? What the hell happened?" The archer inquired, his speech practically dripping with confusion, "Why am I restrained?"

"You don't remember," She lightly remarked, cursing in Russian under her breath at the situation she had landed herself in.

"Remember what?" He murmured, suspicion quickly arousing in his eyes as he attempted to gain the answers he seeked in his partner's green eyes.

She remained silent, knowing the answers would rip him apart from the inside.

"Nat? At the very least tell me why I'm tied up," He pleaded with her. There was a tense pause, practically deafening in the silence that encased them.

That was when it struck him, sending his mind vastly reeling off course.

"I- I killed them. I shot at Hill, what the hell have I done, Nat?" Panic coursed through his tone, why had he done it, "You need to leave now, it might not be safe for you to be in here,"

"It's okay, Clint. That wasn't you, it was Loki. That son of a Bitch did all of this," She placed a comforting hand on his shoulder as she sat by his knees on the bed.

"But I should have been able to get him out of my head. Jesus Christ, Nat. All those agents, all those civilians," He sounded lost, his entire path in life sent veering off course, much like a car crash.

"It wasn't your fault, Barton, listen to me! Don't you dare go down this path. Don't do this to yourself. Trust me it'll kill you, and I'm pretty damn sure Laura doesn't want to be organising a goddamn funeral,"

"But he shouldn't have been able to get full contr-" His attempts at blaming himself were cut off quickly.

"Not! Your! Fault!" She emphasised each word with a look of sympathy, with a strange addition of understanding.

"You don't know what it's like, Nat! How is it not my fault! What if he still has access to my mind?" He glared at her.

"I hit you hard enough to prevent that. And don't even play that card with me, Barton. You know damn well I know what it's like. God knows I was brainwashed long enough. But our past doesn't define us, not when the past was out of our control,"

"I'm sorry, Nat," He apologised, knowing he had hit a low spot with her, "They all hate me, don't they?" He asked in regards to the other agents in the base.

She thought carefully as to how to answer the question, "I know I don't. Fury, Hill, none of them blame you. In fact, anyone who hates you for that are bastards that should have mind control performed on them before they judge you. If I hear of anyone saying anything, I'll knock them into next week, you know I will,"

He chuckled lightly at that, "Alright, Nat. How soon can I get these straps off?" He asked as the tone lightened somewhat as he relieve a portion of the guilt weighing heavily on his mind.

"Soon," She responded with a slight smile, happy her partner was okay.

**Sorry for the short length. The next chapter should be coming up over the next few days.**


	4. Bruce

**Remember to review if you enjoy this fic.**

**Chapter Four) Bruce**

"The sun's getting real low," She spoke softly, almost motheringly to the green Hulk in front of her. They were in the lab of the Avengers tower, when Tony had managed to piss the scientist off with a few well placed needle pokes and the water bomb incident, which had ruined the piece of equipment he had been working on for the past hour. It didn't take too long for the green guy to surface after that.

Needless to say, Stark hastened to run away and order Natasha to the lab via JARVIS, interrupting the book she was reading. Luckily, not too much damage had been done to the area, and only a couple of smashed test tubes stood to testify that anything have even occurred there at all.

She gently placed her palm on top of his, gently squeezing his hand in hers before softly stroking his arm with her other hand. She kept her eyes on him as she did so, remaining silent.

It only took a few more mere moments before he clutched onto a rack nearby as he grunted and panted out in pain as he phased back into his human form. She felt her heart pang as she watched, hating seeing him in pain after the transformation. It was bad enough seeing any of her teammates - her family - in pain, but being unable to do anything to stop it was something else entirely.

There was silence as he fell to the ground, his body contorting a few times as the glowing emerald green vanished from sight. He quickly fell asleep afterwards from the sheer exhaustion the change had taken, having been in battle and thereby the hulk only the day previous.

With a tiny smile on her face, she approached the man she had been tasked with helping, brushing some of the glass of of his chest. She carefully hoisted him into her arms, surprised at how light the scientist felt against her expectations.

She lightly stepped towards the door to the lab.

"JARVIS? Can you please open the door," She quietly asked, not wanting to awaken the doctor in her arms.

The lab door swung open without so much as a creak in response. She walked somewhat slowly into the hallway, knowing how much Banner needed to sleep after the past few days.

The other Avengers were placated in the kitchen, Thor and Steve making what seemed to be lasagne as Clint and Tony bickered amongst themselves as per usual. Natasha headed past them, smirking as she heard Tony call Clint a birdbrain.

"Thanks, Romanoff," He whirled around to her, hearing the familiar sound of her combat boots hitting the wooden flooring.

"I'm gonna take him to his room. I'd save him a plate though, hell probably be up soon enough," She told the men in the room.

"I can take him if you want, let you get back to that book you were reading," Steve offered with a friendly smile, always ready to help and wanting to get away from the two adults acting like toddlers.

"It's alright, Rodgers. I don't mind. Besides someone needs to keep those two in line,"

"Hey, we can hear you, Nat," Clint informed her from where he was stood.

"I'm aware," She smirked before heading off to the room Banner was staying in.

She set him carefully onto the bed pulling the blanket gently around his shoulders. He turned over slightly, beginning to snore gently as he settled into a deeper slumber. The redhead kissed his forehead softly as she smiled down at him.

"Sleep well, Bruce," She told him gently, caressing the cheek of the man she was slowly falling in love with before drawing the curtains and turning to leave out of the room, clicking the door behind her.

**Thanks for reading!**


	5. Thor

**Feel free to review if you enjoy this story! Please Enjoy!**

**Chapter Five) Thor**

He just couldn't face it. At all. He couldn't stay at Asgard any more for the moment, and as such the decision was made to stay at the tower for as long as needed before heading back to his kingdom. He had summoned Heimdall to open the bifrost and had explained the situation to his fellow teammates and friends- that both his mother and his brother were dead.

It had taken a lot of self strength from Clint and Tony in particular to manage to stop themselves from announcing their pleasure at the news of the god of lies' death.

"Are you handling it alright?" Steve asked of his friend, knowing how hard it was to lose a family member, let alone two at once in the forms of his mother and brother.

"I am okay, my friends. It happened a few days ago now," He addressed the concerns airily. However, it didn't take much for two particular assassins to see right through the facade. One quick glance with each other as good as confirmed their roused suspicions.

"He's not dealing with it well. At all," Clint spoke bluntly. It was a few hours after everyone else had gone to sleep, and as such the duo had taken advantage to discuss the god of thunder, "There was definitely darkness under his eyes,"

"And his hands were shaking slightly. I'm surprised the others didn't cotton on to it," Natasha contributed.

"Well, if he's not accepting help at the moment, we'll just have to wait till he's ready. I'm going to go to bed now anyway. I have a mission in Peru tomorrow night,"

"Okay. I'm going to check on him now, see how he's doing," Natasha spoke, very much doubting the god was sleeping at all, and if he was, not well at all.

The redhead stepped lightly onto the floorboards as she headed past Steve's room and neared the guest bedroom at the end of the hall. She didn't really feel like rousing anyone from their sleep at two in the morning.

As expected, the blonde was stifling his sobs into his large pillow, his eyes a reddish shade from the amount of times he'd rubbed them. He had heard her, but didn't care enough to stop her in her tracks.

"Thor? What's going on up there?" She asked, having dealt with numerous people suffering from loss and knowing how bad it could affect your mental state.

"They're gone," He barely managed to stumble out. He turned to look at her, the denial pure in his eyes. She addressed him with concern before kneeling down next to him. She pulled him into a tight hug, allowing him to sob over her shoulder. She rubbed his back in comfort.

"My mother is gone, my brother is gone. What now, Lady Natasha? I can't go back there,"

"You know you can stay here for as long as it takes, even if you never go back," She told him, her own eyes closed as she continued to rub his back and hold him closely.

"I never even got to say goodbye to my mother," He choked out, "What if I'd never brought Jane to Asgard- she'd still be alive. It's all my fault,"

"You can't blame yourself for this. If you're going to go down that route then what about Jane, is she to blame for simply being there? Are the palace guards to blame for not managing to stop the imposters in time? No, because it's none of your faults. You didn't know any of this was going to happen, and it's only them to blame for this. They're the ones that decided to attack, they're the ones that decided to do what they did,"

"And what about Loki- he probably thought I hated him right until the end,"

"That's not true, Thor. How many times have you defended him? Been there for him? Tried to get him onto our side? Believe me he knows you loved and cared for him, perhaps even overly cared,"

"What now, Lady Natasha? What do I do now?"

"I have an idea, it helped me when I lost one of my closest friends in the field. Just trust me and come with me," Thor did as asked and stumbled his way into the hall, wiping some of his tears away as they headed towards the training room.

"Natasha? What are we doing here?" Thor inquired, with strains of curiosity showing through his despondent tone.

"Training helps, believe me. It channels your emotions and helps to release them, or at least it does for me. Spar with me and you can try it for yourself,"

He went along with her plan and soon enough, the sounds of heavy blows and footsteps on the mat filled the room as the assassin and the god sparred. It only took around eight minutes for the god to catch Natasha during a dodge and land her flat on her back.

"Any better?" She asked him as she jumped to her feet, rubbing her shoulder lightly where he had punched her.

"A small bit, Lady Natasha. Thank you," He sounded somewhat grateful, but she could tell he was still downcast.

"Any time," She spoke with a sad smile, hoping time would prove a healer for her teammate and friend.

**So only one character left to go - Natasha herself! I'll try to get that chapter done in a few days and have that up for you soon. If you are enjoying this story, feel free to favourite and review.**


	6. Natasha

**I am so sorry for the long wait, I just haven't paticularly been motivated as of late. There is a slight reference to torture, but nothing too bad.****And so the end is here! Enjoy the final chapter!**

**Chapter Six) Natasha**

"In Russia?" Clint clarified as the Avengers sat in the meeting room with Fury and Hill, discussing their latest mission, "Against the Red Room?" He shot a furtive glance towards Natasha, who had gone dangerously pale and silent.

"That is correct, Agent Barton," Maria spoke, her tone impartial, however she knew exactly why Clint was so against the destination.

"What's wrong, Katniss?" Tony asked in confusion and heavy curiosity, none of the other Avengers par Bruce having being told anything from the Russian's past, and even all Clint knew barely scratched the surface of the iceberg that was the secrets of the Black Widow training facility.

"None of your business, Stark," Natasha icily told him in place of her friend, her facade well and truly up so as to hide her absolute sheer terror.

"How about we have this conversation in private, agent," Fury commanded more than suggested to the assassin.

Bruce and Clint instantly got up to leave with Thor, none particularly wanting to be the victim of Romanoff's cold glare.

"Tony, move it!" Steve ordered his teammate, practically heaving the inventor up. Stark obeyed his order grudgingly, wanting to know the secrets of the Widow.

"And no hacking the database or it's no missions and everyone's paperwork for a month!" Hill yelled after his retreating back, already aware of the billionaire's antics and respecting her friend's want for privacy.

"Please don't send me on this, Nick," The woman almost begged of him, dropping her mask in front of some of her oldest friends, "I can't go back there, what if I'm captured? I'd rather die than be held prisoner there,"

"I apologise, but there is absolutely no one else here that knows the base to the level that you do,"

"It'll be okay, Natasha. I'm handling the mission and I'll be in a quinjet nearby in case of backup," Maria told her in an effort to quell the worries of the Russian.

"Okay," She reluctantly agreed, her eyes closed and a pause stretching on for almost a minute before she answered.

After the mission

The mission hadn't gone too well. Natasha had managed to find herself face to face with one of her old trainers, and had since been too frozen to attack, which had led to her being given a black eye, split lip, as well as multiple lacerations and bruises. She was eventually able to overcome her past and shoot her at point blank range, and that was how the team had found her, covered in brain matter and huddled onto the floor.

"We're here," Maria called through from the cockpit, where she was sat with Clint, each of them treating it as a private place to address their secret concerns.

"Let's go, Itsy Bitsy Spider," Tony told her, shuffling her down the ramp.

"Fuck off, Stark!" She spat at him, storming away from him and towards Bruce instead.

"Leave her alone, Tony," Steve warned him, knowing there was something more to the situation, but not wanting to intrude, especially not after the day she had had.

"Whatever, Spangly pants," Tony sighed, accepting that it probably wasn't the time, "Sorry, Romanoff!" He called after her. If she heard him, she didn't acknowledge it.

"Look after her, Barton. You know what can happen the nights after these sort of missions," Hill warned him, having experienced the situation far too much. Clint nodded in agreement before heading after Steve and Tony, who had began bickering lightly as to what to watch for movie night.

Later that night

They had finally settled on an episode of a tv series and were about halfway through it when Natasha's eyes began to droop from where she had leant into Clint's chest. A well timed death glare to Tony from the archer prevented the merciless teasing that would likely have taken place otherwise.

Around twenty minutes passed before the blood-chilling screams began to pierce through the room.

"What the hell," Tony muttered, flying around to the duo of assassins, half expecting there to be someone stood there.

"Nat! Wake up!" Clint yelled at his partner, shaking her body, which appeared even smaller than usual.

A small gathering had emerged around the two on the sofa, each of them attempting to rouse the redhead from her nightmare.

"I can't kill her! She's my friend, please!" Tears began to stream down the woman's face as she spoke the dream aloud. A tiny gasp was heard from Steve, shocked at the newfound knowledge of how hard her past blatantly was, and he'd only heard one snippet of it.

"You're not there, Tasha. Wake up!" Clint tried once again. Tony, Bruce, Steve and Thor began to think about solutions to wake her up without making the situation even worse. However they were all at a loss, none of them having ever seen the redhead like this before.

"Is there anything we can do, Clint?" Bruce asked, having grasped the seriousness of the situation.

"Yeah, can you get Fury on the line and get him to give her the next few days off- she'll need it,"

It took a further thirty seconds for the Widow to be rendered back to being awake, albeit incredibly shaken. She instinctively curled up onto Clint's chest, not bothering to wipe the tears still running down her face.

"It's alright, you're back now," He murmured soothingly into her hair.

"Was that the red room?" Tony inquired almost gently, unable to help himself. Glares were shot at him from around the room, but Natasha gave him a tiny nod.

"I'm so sorry Lady Natasha, nobody should be forced to endure what you have most obviously gone through," Thor spoke quieter than usual.

"It's alright, Thor," She spoke in a voice barely more than a whisper.

"Hot chocolate?" Bruce asked in an attempt to diffuse the awkward atmosphere.

"Please," She muttered, and he could have sworn a faint smile almost found its way onto her face.

"I'll go help you," Steve asked, not quite knowing what to do in the situation they all collectively found themselves in.

Mere minutes later, the duo appeared in the room, each carrying a tray of steaming mugs. They delivered them to the other occupants of the room before sitting down on the sofa themselves, and that was where they remained for the rest of the evening, Natasha cuddled up to Clint's chest, who was playing softly with her hair. Thor and Steve each telling stories of the 1930s and 40s as well as of Asgard, Tony trying to make Natasha smile, and Bruce informing her on meditation and other techniques.

That was where they remained: a family.

**It's been fun guys, and I hope you enjoyed reading this fic!**


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